G751JT "tick...tock" sound when User Access Control dialog appears, even when muted

[sgtrock]

Just unboxed my new G751JT last night and it is amazing. Updated ASUS drivers from the website and went through a full Windows Update cycle. Then ran a few benchmarks like 3DMark, PCMark, Furmark, and Unigine for about 2 hours off and on last night to exercise it. Also started the Intel Burn Test using all RAM but stopped it before going to bed. (mentioned just in case it is relevant)

This morning I kicked off Unigine Heaven for about an hour at max settings including tesselation all maxed out. Then switched to Valley for a while, then back to Heaven. Off and on total almost three hours. System ran beautifully, temps never got above about 63 for GPU and 65-67 for CPU. Ambient indoor temp is around 70F/21C here.

Immediately after doing this I went to install another monitor (openhardwaremonitor) and the device made a weird clicking sound when it started the program. After investigating I found it only happens when the User Account Control dialog pops up, i.e. when the EXE requires admin rights. For example, I can open chrome.exe without issue, but if I right click and choose Run As Administrator the UAC dialog pops up and the laptop makes that dual-click sound again.

The sound is a sort of "tick...tock" sound. It doesn't sound like a HDD access and besides I have an M2 primary and 7200RPM HDD in the second bay that is empty and not accessed.

I made a video to try and capture the sound. What is happening in the video is I am double-clicking on the Open Hardware Monitor EXE and it immediately displays the UAC at which time you hear the "tick...tock" sound, then I hit ESC to exit the UAC and repeat the sequence over again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acm3WZgufmA

I did a factory restore to see if the issue was software related but the sound issue persists. The video was taken a few minutes ago after the restore. Now I'm concerned that the hardware somehow got damaged, yet the temps were very low compared to what I've seen some folks reporting.

Any idea what is causing this? Is it possible that running the Intel Burn messed something up internally? I mean it shouldn't but who knows? I ran it right before bed, stopped it, and then noticed the sound this morning when trying to install the new program. Since the sound did not happen last night, and the burn test is intensive, I'm wondering if there is a correlation. Or Furmark? I ran it on very high settings full screen but not more than maybe 10 minutes late last night, just before the Intel test. I didn't install anything after running the Intel test, not sure if I installed the Intel test before or after running Furmark. (I think after, but not 100% sure)

I really don't want to return this to Amazon the day after I got it. 😞 Thanks.

Edit: I just noticed it also happens when adjusting the volume control, i.e. clicking the speaker icon in the system tray to pull up the volume slider doesn't do it, but clicking the slider at all (without moving it) does trigger the sound, again a two-part "tick...tock" sound. No UAC popup.

[Corporal]

Welcome to the club 😄

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?59248-G751-Sound-Crackling-Thread-%28The-one-thread-to-rul...

The "Problem" exists in every single g751 out there afaik. There is no point in getting a replacement/ RMAing, live with it or choose a different laptop.

[aeolisio]

Corporal wrote:
Welcome to the club 😄

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?59248-G751-Sound-Crackling-Thread-%28The-one-thread-to-rul...

The "Problem" exists in every single g751 out there afaik. There is no point in getting a replacement/ RMAing, live with it or choose a different laptop.

The static crackling problem corporal is talking about doesnt exist in every single g751 out there thats a huge over exaggeration. I have seen 50+ g751s none which have that issue and its also not the issue this poster was talking about. It might be helpful if you read the issue before posting a reply like that and possibly scaring g751 owners or warding new customers off but i suspect that was your purpose.

As for the OP can you turn off you windows sounds and see if it helps? Not just mute but turn off the actual sound. There is a notification sound associated with UAC and will play sometimes even when it is muted as it is a warning dialog. Go into the sounds tab and go through the sounds and see if any replicate it.

[sgtrock]

Hmm that's weird. I saw that thread and didn't think anything of it since my sound issue isn't quite a "crackling" sound as described there. Are you sure its the same issue? Is there a post somewhere in those 20 pages that has a video/audio of the same sound? If so I'd love to see it because I can't find anything like it online at all. 😞

The problem doesn't happen when I listen to audio at all, at least not that I can tell. It happens whenever the UAC dialog pops up, and it makes that sound even when the volume is muted. The volume is muted in that video but you can still hear it happening. It also happens when I click on the slider bar in the volume control. Unlike one of the posters in that thread I haven't overclocked anything, this is a stock system with no changes.

Its annoying but it certainly doesn't seem to be causing any issues other than being annoying, and I can certainly deal with it. I just want to make sure it isn't a symptom of some other problem that won't fully manifest until after my Amazon quick and easy return period is over.

[Corporal]

I have exactly the same "issue" as you, the subwoofer is getting powered when sound card is waking up from sleep due to some bug in the driver.
It's part of the sound crackling issue.

It happens whenever the UAC dialog pops up, and it makes that sound even when the volume is muted.

It will make this sound whenever windows is trying to play anything, causing your sound card to wake up from sleep. You can (sort of) fix the issue by preventing the sound card from entering sleep mode. Play some music, then pause your player. I use winamp.
Had the issue on all 3 g751jy I tested, this being the third. I think it's safe to assume that every g751 has it. The "subwoofer making sound when muted" as well as crackling in audio jack + subwoofer.

[Corporal]

I have seen 50+ g751s none which have that issue and its also not the issue this poster was talking about. It might be helpful if you read the issue before posting a reply like that and possibly scaring g751 owners or warding new customers off but i suspect that was your purpose.

Why would scaring g751 users or potential customers be my purpose? I don't care if ASUS makes money or not. I only say what I see, and I have yet to see a single g751 (or a video of it) without this sound crackling/subwoofer ticking issue. Were those 50+ g751 all manufactured after december 2014? Have they changed the sound card circuit design in that timeline?

its also not the issue this poster was talking about.

These two issues occur at the same time, in the same use-case, so for me they are practically the same bad drivers / bad sound card design issues

As for the OP can you turn off you windows sounds and see if it helps? Not just mute but turn off the actual sound. There is a notification sound associated with UAC and will play sometimes even when it is muted as it is a warning dialog. Go into the sounds tab and go through the sounds and see if any replicate it.

The "tick-tock" sound is coming from the subwoofer regardless of whether windows sound is muted or headphones are plugged in. It happens every time the sound card wakes up, whether because of windows trying to play a sound or you trying to play music. It has nothing to do with a specific windows warning sound or whatever.

[sgtrock]

Wow aeolisio I'll be damned. Disabling Windows sounds stopped it cold. Before that it was happening every time audio would start to play, just as Corporal mentioned. This obviously included anytime Windows sounds played. I didn't make the connection. When I went in as you advised and started checking each sound it was happening on every one I checked, and setting the sound scheme to "No Sounds" made it finally stop. Downside is no OS sounds at all, which is OK but not ideal. I may switch it back on, the tick-tock sound wasn't horrible just worrisome.

This is interesting though, because if it were a driver issue it should happen on ALL audio regardless of source. But I can play a Youtube video now without the tick-tock sound. And I checked the silent MP3s from xamuel.com which theoretically should also trigger the sound card -- to "play" silence, but I would think it would still activate the card -- but the sound doesn't occur. Even the Windows sounds should use the same driver even to play the Windows sounds. But Microsoft has historically used internal private API calls for lots of things, so I wonder if this is actually a Windows bug that only surfaces on these sound cards/drivers?

Anyway thanks for the pointer, that led me to a quick solution. 🙂

Corporal, I agree it sounded to me like it was also coming from the subwoofer, even when muted. Have you checked the Windows sounds as well?

[sgtrock]

I must unfortunately retract my statements -- the sound just came back when I opened a Youtube video. The audio is muted and it still did the tick-tock sound.

Oh well, it isn't the end of the world, as long as it isn't a sign of impending hardware doom I guess I can learn to live with it. If we ever find a solution I'll be happy though.

[cpasoft]

There are new drivers, and with the hack on the register (power management key), the cracking sound has gone...
I'm using right now the 6.0.1.7624 version, but there are newers one.
Have a look to this topic:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?57462-G751-Imbalanced-Sound-Problem-%28internal-speakers-o...

At least, it's working to me. There is only one click sound, the first sound when you turn on the computer. Then there is no more clicks or cracks or ticks... 😉

[cpasoft]

I've just installed the last version (6.0.1.7667) and it seems to work right as well.
Don't forget to change the register

Using : [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Realtek\Audio\RtkNGUI64 \PowerMgnt]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000

and reboot.

Hope it helps.

PS: Here you have the link to the last version 7667. It would work until the new one appear. Then, this version (and the link) will be removed
LINK